Rekka The Day
by Forever Kissing
Summary: All I wanted to do was share some of the things about my life with someone. All I ended up doing was making Sain upset. one shot.   Female Tactician x Sain


I had put all of my trust into one person the entire time I was traveling with Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector. I probably shouldn't have, looking it over in retrospect.

I was lost, confused, and scared when I woke up, suddenly transported from my couch and into the Sacaen Plains. I was lucky to meet Lyn when I did.

It took me a couple days to figure out that I had been transported into a video game, like I was a character in Digimon or something. But when I finally came to terms with it, the power I had dawned on me.

This wasn't going to be like sitting on my couch playing Path of Radiance. I was _inside_ this game, I was the tactician. I was actually meeting these people, laughing with them, smiling at them.

The first time I met Sain was the last time he really treated me like he did the rest of the girls. I think he caught on pretty quick that I wasn't just a yellow-clad brunette beauty, but that I was much too proud to be flirted to. He shied away from me at first, seeing that his powers had no control over me.

He quickly became my favorite char—person. The way he ran his hands through his hair, even in battle made me know right away he was the back flip of a normal green knight. Kent was the serious one, while Sain was the flirty, outgoing, and admittedly careless one.

…Prior to this, I had always liked the serious knights better.

Traveling with this group of people, drawn together for the common cause of destroying Nergal, taught me all the lessons in life that I had failed to learn in school. I was blossoming into the woman that God must have first intended me to be.

The first time I really told Sain about myself was a day when I had asked him to be my guard for the battle. Often I had to have one person stay with me so that I could make my way around the battlefield without fear. The field was large this time, and in order to see everyone clearly I would need to travel quickly around. Sain had a horse, as did Kent, but I chose the green knight because I was, admittedly, working on a relationship between Kent and Lyn.

Sain must have noticed. "Why do you insist that these pairs stay together. You always have Serra right behind Erk—even if it means she could take damage long range, and even if other people need to be healed on the other side of the field. You just load them up with elixirs."

I smiled. "Erk and Serra seem to work well together, don't you think?" I smiled to myself. Sure, the only thing they had in common right now was their hatred for each other, but I could see the sparkle in his eyes when he looked at her. He was just hiding it behind insults. "He's becoming quite good at his magic, and she's gaining plenty of skill with staves by healing him."

"He's hardly taking damage. It seems like it would be more efficient to give _him_ an elixir, and send her over with the others. In fact, I don't think I would do _anything_ the way you are."

"Oh?" I asked, smiling a little while I instructed the group forward.

"I mean, you have both Wil and Rebecca standing around together. I would think it would be best to put one of them behind Erk, so that they could both be working more efficiently. Kent too—he could probably plow through those enemies, but you always have him at Lady Lyndis's side. It's like you're plotting something."

I smiled. "You know, it would be nice if I had someone to share my 'plotting' with. Can you keep a secret?"

"Probably not." Sain answered, and my laughter was embarrassingly loud. "But I can try, Iggy." He smiled at me.

"Well, first off, Iggy isn't my real name." I began, "Iggy is the name I use when I play video games, because they only give you four spaces in the oldest ones, and my name is five letters long."

"Video games?" He asked, and I knew I had already lost him.

"I come from a different world, not really across the seas." I smirked at his expression, "A world far into the future, and probably on another planet."

He looked like he couldn't wrap his mind around this. I laughed a little. "Don't work too hard, thinking about it. Anyway a video game is a game that you can watch. You have a screen where you see characters move, interact, and do what you instruct—and you control it all. They're really fun."

"Like very advanced chess, then?"

"…Sort of." At least he had related it to a game. "There are a lot of games called 'Fire Emblem'."

His eyes widened at the mention of the object we had only recently returned to the Queen.

"You have a lot of characters who are all fighters, you guide them to what they're supposed to do, and to beat the game you have to save the world, or end a war, or whatever the case may be."

"…Like what you're doing now, with us." He looked down and turned away from me. He led his horse forward a little bit, so I could continue to direct the troops.

"…" I worried for a moment that telling him something like this might offend him, or scare him.

"Are you saying, milady, that _we_ are only a video game?"

"I don't know." I answered honestly. "Because this is the first time I've ever been transported _into the game._"

"I see."

I was quiet with him the rest of the battle, and he seemed lost in thought.

…

The second time I really talked to him deeply like that was a long time later. Lately the battlefields had become so cluttered and large that I had to take refuge in the air with a Pegasus Knight to direct everyone. It was only when the weather had become quite foggy, and I was afraid of impending archers, that I decided it best to remain on horseback. Sain had volunteered, quickly.

"You never answered my question." Sain stated once everyone was out of earshot. I looked down from the horse and raised an eyebrow.

"What question was that?"

"Why do you keep these people together on the battlefield?" He indicated to the couples, now expanding to include Florina and Hector.

"Ah. Well, I think… I might have freaked you out last time, so I'm not entirely sure if you want to hear."

"You didn't frighten me, Iggy." He stopped for a moment, then frowned. "What is your real name, then, if not Iggy?"

"Nadia." I replied quietly. The air was chilly so I pulled my cloak tighter around my shoulders.

"Then, Nadia, I shall call you by name when we are in the privacy of each other." He guided the horse forward and I nodded.

"Just don't slip and say it around anyone else."

"And so?" He prompted, indicating to the Sage and the Cleric.

"In the Fire Emblem games if you have certain people stand beside each other long enough in battles, they will learn to support each other. You can already see it with Erk and Serra. Do you see how when he, even without my command, will move to keep her safe when they're around? Her powers work better on him as well—that Heal Stave should only heal someone a little bit. When she uses it on him he looks like he's totally rejuvenated."

Sain nodded. "Is that all?"

"Well…" I frowned. "After the game is beaten, the endings change based on the support. Erk is from Etruria. I'm sure that after this is all said and done he will return there."

The knight nodded.

"However, now that he's been around Serra so much… He might not want to—or perhaps he'll ask her to accompany him." I blushed a little. I felt embarrassed, confessing that I was meddling in their love life.

Sain raised his eyes and looked around. "You mean to say that the people we stand next to on the battlefield can relate to who we'll marry, eventually?"

I nodded. He looked again. "Sir Kent isn't of high enough nobility to marry Lady Lyndis."

I shrugged. "If it wasn't supposed to happen, then he wouldn't be falling in love."

"I'm not sure I approve of this, Lady Nadia." Sain muttered, "Sir Kent is my best friend, and Lady Lyndis would certainly break his heart."

I frowned. "I think it will work out."

"But how can you know for sure?"

…

It was a long time before Sain spoke with me again, I feel like I angered him. He wasn't entirely withdrawn though, because he still made his way around the camp to fool around with the men and flirt shamelessly with the women.

He came to me only two battles later, in my tent. He made his presence known from the outside, by calling "Lady Iggy?"

I stood up and greeted him outside of the tent. "Yes, Sain?"

"May I have just a moment of your time?" He began, and I led him inside the tent to my table, where my charts and notes were scattered about. Seeing that I had left out a list of people who could get supported with one another, I covered it up with a journal.

He stood until I took a seat, and then he sat down as well. "Lady Nadia," He began, now that he could speak quietly and privately with me.

"I am not even remotely noble." I interrupted. "There's no need to call me 'lady'."

He rolled his shoulders, and I knew that he wasn't here to play games.

"Lady Nadia, I have noticed lately that you seem to be placing me in battle with Fiora." He bit his lip. "I do enjoy her company, however I can't shake that you perhaps have different motives in mind."

I looked down. "I suppose you have good intuition."

"I would ask you to please have my partner be another man from now on."

I blinked. "What?"

He looked like he was fighting off anger, and I could see his eyes narrow very uncharacteristically. "I appreciate your concerns for my future and my choices in the way of romance, but I would be happiest if I were to make those choices for myself."

"Sain, I was just doing it for your own good…"

"I don't want your help." He frowned before exiting the tent.

…

I didn't put Fiora with Sain after that. I left him to be in a group behind Kent and Lyn. I also didn't call on him to carry me around the field anymore, fearing I had ended my friendship with him.

I could feel that we were drawing near to the end of our journey when we returned to Dread Isle.

I ran behind on foot because I knew that this battle required _all_ of the units to be on the field as a team. There were simply too many enemies to even consider having a body guard. I ran mostly behind Erk and Serra, just because he had turned out to be perhaps the strongest unit I had and she had a heal stave just in case I was hurt. I was distracted though when I saw an arrow take aim at Florina.

I quickly ran to warn her, so she could fly out of the way. As I stood there, proud that she was safe and panting, I heard the sound of both running hoofs and a tightly wound snap of a ballista.

I panicked, looking around in a frenzy to see that I hadn't just directed Florina into a trap. I felt a tug on my elbow and collapsed backwards a few feet, only to see an arrow whiz past my face and into the ground where I was just standing.

I could actually feel the blood draining from my face. I thought I might pass out, for a moment, before I heard the scolding voice behind me.

"Lady Nadia, _what_ are you doing on the battlefield alone?"

By the tone at first I thought it was Kent, but after only a second my brain digested that the voice had said Nadia, not Iggy. "S-Sain?" I asked, hearing him dismount his stallion in a hurry.

"You are a better tactician than that." He muttered, "You should know that if _anyone_ should be lost, it should not be you. What can we do without you? You guide us as a team?" I was silent, but he quickly, and without my permission, hoisted me up onto his horse and led it away from the ballista by the reins.

"Sain… thank you." I smiled, but I could see that he wasn't smiling back.

"You could have been killed." He grunted, and led me into a patch of forest where I assumed he would leave to resume the instructions I gave him."

He didn't leave.

"…Sain, didn't I direct you to back up Kent and Lyn?"

"I'm tired of this, Lady Nadia." Kent frowned deeply at me and I bit my lip.

"The battle will be over soon."

"I mean I'm tired of being angry at you, Milady." He was silent for a minute and I felt his eyes scour mine. "I'm not the kind of guy who gets upset _in general_. I've always left the upsetting things in life for Kent. I'm the nice man, the fun man…"

"I don't like to fight either…"

"The things you've told me have bothered me." He began again, and I remained silent. "But what I don't understand is why you never have _yourself_ with the same person over and over. Shouldn't _you_ want to be happy when this is said and done?"

I looked down. "I think… that when this is over I'll just… be gone. I think I'll go home."

All at once I felt him pull me forward by the small of my back and force his lips down onto mine. I was shocked by it entirely—was this just something he did spur of the moment or had he given much thought to kissing me? His hand knotted itself into my hair and I felt my arms involuntarily come up around his neck, finding a comfortable resting place on his armor.

When he pulled away from me he didn't let go of my head or back, but simply guided my face to rest against his chest. His armor was cold to the touch, but I didn't care at the moment. I thought for a moment that I could almost hear his heart beating through the metal.

"Sain…" I began, but couldn't bring myself to finish the sentence. I think he knew what I was going to say anyway, because he didn't press the issue.

But what would happen when I finally went home?

…

With the battle over and the world saved, I felt like a giant weight had been lifted off of my chest. I'm sure that everyone did. The travels back to Caelin were long, and it was heartbreaking to say goodbye to Eliwood and his new fiancée Ninian. We also parted ways with Hector and Florina, and then after that it seemed one by one we were losing _everyone_.

Sain watched intently every experience when a couple parted together. Wil and Rebecca returned home with plans to marry. Pent and Louise were celebrating the upcoming birth of their first child. Even Nino and Jaffar had found love in each other.

Once we returned to Castle Caelin, I wondered when I would finally be returned home. I noticed that Sain was slacking off in a lot of his duties to spend time with me, and I didn't have to ask.

He knew that I was going to leave soon.

After a few weeks I think he lacked that belief, that he was sure I was wrong. Without much warning the Marquess of Caelin passed away. Lyn chose to leave Caelin in the care of Ostia. In the dead of night she vanished with her most trusted knight, Kent, back to Sacae.

When Sain first heard their plan, I saw the look on his face. It was realization. I was right all along.

I knew then that I had to leave. There was no mistaking it—the only way I would be able to get home would be to let every single character of the game have their respectful ending—be it with marriage or with honor. If I stayed with Sain he wouldn't find his ending. He deserved that honor.

I snuck out in the night with just a backpack with my charts in them. I came into this place with nothing but the clothes on my back, but I wasn't leaving that way. I wanted to keep these memories, even if it was just a dream or out of body experience.

I must have timed the guard watch wrong though, because I snuck right into Sain's arms.

"Milady Nadia?" He asked seeing my back. I could see the hurt in his eyes. "…You're leaving, then."

I frowned. "I'm sorry, Sain… But you'll never have your happy ending if I stay here!"

"What do you mean?" He asked, propping his spear against a wall.

"The game. You remember what I told you? Everyone has their own endings! If I stay here I'm keeping you from yours."

Once more I felt the spontaneous feeling of his lips on mine. My knees gave out, but he quickly wrapped an arm around my back to keep me from collapsing.

This time I had control of my arms. I pushed against his chest until he let me go, and I could see that he looked very unhappy. I was sure that my eyes mirrored that emotion.

"Sain! You could be commander of the Caelin Knights!" I gasped, staring into his eyes.

"Marry me, Nadia."

My ears took a few seconds just to translate the words. It was like he spoke it in a foreign language.

"…What?"

"You've told me this whole time how you would leave—you told me over and over. I don't _want you to leave_."

"But…"

"If it is my 'ending' you're worried about, then let's start it now. I don't want any other woman, I don't want command of the knights. Nadia, I want you. I want to listen to your foreign stories about cell phones and video games. I want to come home every day to listen to you ramble about how much you hate our garb."

I was stunned into silence.

"I want to make my life with you. My home, my children, my death. I want it all to begin and end with you."

"Sain…"

"…And if you _are_ my ending, then you might never leave. You might remain here, in my arms, until you forget all about your 'apartment' and your 'college'."

I wanted to melt. It was my turn to get excited and kiss him. This was exactly what I wanted. This was exactly what I needed.

I suppose it wasn't customary for women to pull their men into suffocating kisses where we were, but I didn't care. This was the start of not just _his_ happy ending, but mine.

Of course… it was really only the beginning.

…


End file.
